What to do with leftover baked potatoes

Since a baked potato comes in a reasonable single-serving unit, it is easy not to have leftovers – like, one would probably bake four for a family of four and end of the story. But if you happen to have extras on hand, you are in luck. As much as I love a good baked potato, I may love BakedPotato 2.0 even more, which usually leads me to bake a few extra in the first place.

Because of a potato's nature, it loves to be cooked twice – once to make it fluffy and tender, another time to crispen it up. Just think double-fried French fries and twice-baked potatoes. A regular baked potato comes out of the oven, both fluffy and crispy, it already has the best of both worlds. But after a day or two in the fridge, it loses that dynamic of textures; I have never had much success at trying to recapture the baked-potato-ness of a baked potato after it has hit the fridge.

A Profusion of Potato Possibilities

That said, cold baked potatoes provide a blank culinary canvas. You can: chop them up and roast them; make home fries; make baked potato soup; stuff them and bake them again; add them to casseroles; make baked potatoes au gratin; make potato cakes, potato salad, potato skins, mashed potatoes, potato wedges, hash, hash browns, the list goes on. BBC Good Food has a list of 39 recipes for leftover potatoes – which is where to go if you're interested in "refried roasties," "cottage pie cakes," or "bubble & squeak," of course.

Three Step Potato Perfection

One of my favorite things to do is one of the simplest, and it's what I did with some of my leftovers after experimenting with baking potato methods this week. (The baked potato winner is here: Yep, this is the best way to make baked potatoes.)

1. Remove leftover baked potatoes from the fridge2. Slice3. Heat olive oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat; add potatoes and cook on each side for a few minutes until crisp and golden4. Season, eat

I am guessing that everyone does this already, I think you all must, right? But when I looked around the Internet, all I saw for leftover potatoes were recipes showing potatoes piled high with mountains of this and that. I love these golden medallions because of their ease and simplicity, and how they let the sweet earthy flavor of the potato speak for itself.

What's your favorite way to eat leftover potatoes? Tell us in the comments.